Final Fantasy XVI
By Chad Sapieha,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
First M-rated Final Fantasy has sex, blood, lots of F-bombs.
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Final Fantasy XVI
Community Reviews
Based on 1 parent review
Great game!
What’s It About?
FINAL FANTASY XVI gives players an entirely new world and cast of characters set within the storied Final Fantasy universe. Clive is a prince of Rosaria, one of a handful of kingdoms in Valisthea, a land consumed by diabolical political figures and where natural magic users are looked upon as subhuman. Gifted with an ability to use fire magic, Clive is betrayed by his mother and placed in the service of a neighboring kingdom, where he must fight their wars or die. He eventually escapes and begins a journey toward revenge, justice, and equality. If he can help save the world from an encroaching menace known as the Blight, which is turning large swaths of land in every kingdom into lifeless wastelands, all the better. When not watching cinematic narrative sequences -- that bring to life the game's massive cast of characters and explain their myriad conflicts, alliances, betrayals, rivalries, and romances -- players spend their time in control of Clive, guiding him through the wilderness and around towns on missions to help those who are enslaved, hunt down vicious monsters, run errands for friends, and take down the tyrants who are orchestrating wars and and using innocents as pawns. Clive gradually grows in strength and ability along the way, crafting new weapons and learning more magic-based skills that allow him to tear his way through groups of enemies in fast-paced and intense real-time combat. And all the while he's trailed by a mysterious entity known as Ultima, whose intentions toward the gifted prince are unknown but clearly malicious.
Is It Any Good?
Unlike many game franchises, the great thing about mainline Final Fantasy games is that each stands fully and completely on its own without any need for players to be familiar with their predecessors. There's no exception for Final Fantasy XVI. It's a complete story with an entirely original cast of characters set in a new world, and it features innovative game mechanics that everyone, regardless of experience, will need to learn from scratch. That's not to say there aren't lots of little Easter eggs and homages to earlier games that returning players will enjoy -- they'll notice clever little musical reprises, characters with familiar names, and mythological creatures that have carried through the entire series -- it's just that new players will have no discernible disadvantage when they jump in. Much like its main narrative theme, this is an egalitarian game.
Players new to the series are bound to be wowed by what they encounter. The world Square Enix has built is intricate and sophisticated, filled with scores of important characters, each with their own motivations, ambitions, and relationships that fit like puzzle pieces into the broader story. It's so complex that players have been given several lore-parsing systems -- such as a tome master in Clive's hideaway who keeps what is essentially a world encyclopedia -- to help keep track and make sense of it all. Beyond the satisfying storytelling is a real-time battle system that takes a while to master but turns out to be very rewarding as Clive slowly learns dozens of incredibly powerful abilities and moves that allow him to make short work of feebler foes and enact clever strategies to stagger and whittle down the health bars of bigger baddies. The main boss battles -- which often pit pairs of giant magical entities known as Eikons against each other -- are jaw dropping set pieces that can result in the destruction of armies, towns, and, in one case, an entire mountain. The sense of power being wielded and released in these epic battles is almost tangible. Indeed, Final Fantasy XVI lives up to the series' reputation for saga and spectacle, and RPG fans old enough to handle its adult themes and intense visuals will surely be delighted.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in the media. Final Fantasy XVI is the first M-rated Final Fantasy game, and it depicts violence and death much more graphically than its predecessors. Can intense violence create a deeper emotional connection between audiences and stories, or is it usually simply a gimmick?
Talk about playable characters. Should games always strive to allow players to customize the main character as they like? When might it make sense to have the player feel what it's like to be in another's shoes?
Game Details
- Platform: PlayStation 5
- Pricing structure: Paid ($59.99)
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Release date: June 22, 2023
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Adventures , Friendship
- ESRB rating: M for Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence
- Last updated: June 23, 2023
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